U of M Basketball Recruiting Discussion

[*JD*]

247's latest update (11/8) in rankings for the 2018 Men's Basketball recruiting class. Castleton up a tick, Nunez down and DeJulius down a bit.

Nunez #279
DeJulius #154
Castleton #114
Johns #69
Iggy #42

Coach Washington is ranked #10 in top recruiters for 2018.



BTW- Taylor Currie (#190) wound up committing to Wisky.

[The Oracle]

He'll be good there too.

[*JD*]

Iggy, punching one home.

[ame]https://twitter.com/PhenomHoopPhoto/status/929107921774014464[/ame]

[Detroit Dan]

Looks like an athlete -- dunking competition caliber.

[*JD*]

He looks like he already has a college body. I'm looking forward to seeing him next year.

[Hannibal]

Speculation/look-ahead

What does our starting five look like next year?

[hack]

Good question. Assuming Simpson locks down the PG spot, he doesn't seem likely to blow up and leave early. Teske looks like he'll be the backup this year, so he's more likely than anyone else to take the C spot as a starter. Hopefully Davis is ready to back up, or Castleton arrives physically ready.

On the wing, some others can correct me if I'm wrong, but Iggy and Johns have the look of kids that can start as frosh. Iggy is going to be more of a perimeter-oriented guy and Johns more of a 4, right? So we have to hope that Livers develops nicely this year as a backup 4 and is ready to take it, and have Iggy and Johns compete to start alongside Matthews. Assuming Matthews doesn't blow up. He's got three years of eligibility left, so if he has NBA game to go with that NBA athleticism, you could imagine him here next year and leaving.

All this assumes that neither Watson or Poole come on. Way too early to guess on Poole, but Watson has gotten even less floor time this year than last. Eli Brooks could force Beilein to run with two 6-0 guards, if he's good enough. Beilein likes to have two facilitators, and you can get away with a backcourt that short in college.

Interested to see what the others here think, but my wild guess is that Matthews proves himself the best option at the 2, even if it's unclear just yet that he has the handle. So it'll be Simpson/Matthews/Iggy/Livers or Johns/Teske.

[hack]

For the future, a lot is riding on Castleton. It's going to be very important to get a skilled big in the next class, and, unless both Teske and Davis are pretty good college 5s this year, another recruit at that level too.

[Hannibal]

Having a nice stable 4 will go a long way towards determining the team's future. Goddammit why did Wilson have to leave five minutes after he blew up? I see that is this year's team's biggest uncorrectable weakness. The rest of the issues look like things that we can work out once everyone gels.

It's getting late early for Watson, as they say on mgoblog.

[hack]

It's definitely a matchup that, when in his favor, Beilein can really work with. And it can really hurt too, if rebounding is weak at that spot. There's a lot riding on Livers having a nice season. I'm still more worried about the 5 spot though. Just IMO but for this year that spot will be OK. Especially if Matthews can help out a bit on the boards, because that won't be Robinson. But Robinson is going to provide some valuable spacing and we should be able to run away from some teams with a five-out offense and penetrators like Simpson and Matthews to capitalize on that.

[*JD*]

For the future, a lot is riding on Castleton. It's going to be very important to get a skilled big in the next class, and, unless both Teske and Davis are pretty good college 5s this year, another recruit at that level too.

If we're talking about 2019, we're already maxed on scholarships...actually 1 over for 2018 but Mo is likely to make the jump after this season.

[*JD*]

If you're just looking to next season, I'd think Castleton redshirts, unless he puts on some serious weight or if Davis is a complete non-factor. Castleton's body is '89-'90 Eric Riley at the moment. Regardless of the middle, we will have a nice array of athletic 6'8" guys in Livers (I'm also guessing he adds muscle), Iggy and Johns.

Back to this season- one thing I did notice in the CMU game was that Mo was the main one crashing the boards, whereas ever since McGary, Beilein liked having his guards try to get after it. I'm wondering if that's a new philosophy or just a function of Mo's added bulk and improved game.

[WM Wolverine]

Or the guards inability to rebound.

[hack]

Yeah, we do need Teske AND Davis to hit, or a transfer. Castleton does look rail thin. I have no Castleton-specific reason to fear a Mark Donnal problem other than Donnal's career, but for the longer term we can't have that happen again.

[*JD*]

Donnal had some good games but he certainly wasn't a diamond in the rough.